Na slyšenou: akomodační experiment v telefonických jazykověporadenských interakcích
Na slyšenou (‘until we hear each other again’): an accommodation experiment in the telephone language-consulting interactions

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents a case study of lexical accommodation in Czech, focusing on the variation between na slyšenou (‘goodbye’, lit. *hear you / *until we hear each other again) and na shledanou (‘goodbye’, lit. see you / *until we see each other again) in closing greetings of participants of language consulting interactions. As a source of the data, a collection of recordings of phone calls directed to the Language Consulting Centre of the Czech Language Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences was used. The collection consists of interactions in which the responding consultant deliberately used the less frequent and highly specific na slyšenou. The behaviour of the enquirers is explored from the perspective of the communication accommodation theory. The analysis of the sample reveals an overwhelming preference for the more frequent variant. However, when the consultees’ closing greeting followed the consultant’s na slyšenou, the frequency of this variant increased significantly. There was no effect of gender or the duration of the call on the lexical choice. Factors pertaining to the accommodation strategies are then discussed based on the qualitative micro-analysis of selected interactions of interest, illuminating potential motivations behind the choices speakers made between the variants as well as the limitations of the methodology of the experiment.

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